Ripple Went to Great Lengths to Be Listed on Gemini and GDAX

According to Bloomberg, insiders have revealed that Ripple executives tried to persuade US cryptocurrency exchanges to list XRP by offering them money. Both incidents reportedly occurred last year, with $1 million offered to the Winklevoss twins’ exchange, Gemini, and $100 million’s worth of XRP to leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Evidently, both exchanges declined the offer.

The news broke in the crypto community today, but the sources wished to remain anonymous throughout the ordeal. Emmalee Kremer, Ripple’s spokesperson, said that ‘some’ accusations were false without revealing which ones she was talking about. “Regardless, Ripple has always been transparent about our focus on building and growing a strong XRP ecosystem. We want XRP to be the most liquid digital asset possible to enable faster, cheaper global payments,” said Kremer.

Why Won’t Coinbase List Ripple?

Ripple’s centralized nature makes it appear unappealing to Coinbase; as per the GDAX Digital Asset Framework, a token can only be listed if “the network is public, decentralized, and enables trustless consensus.” It also states that the coin must not be registered as a security by the US Securities Law. If exchanges list such tokens and later on they turn out to be securities, both parties will face serious charges. Jesse Overall, a lawyer at UK-based Clifford Chance, explained, “Listing on an exchange is the integral part of the process of facilitating an unregistered, unlawful, illegal securities issuance to people who are not allowed to buy.”

Earlier in January, Ripple’s price spiked when rumors spread that the coin was being welcomed by GDAX. However, Coinbase denied the stories and XRP’s value dropped sharply. CEO Chris Larsen, who owns $5.2 billion in XRP, was even named the richest man in crypto by Forbes, with an estimated worth of $8 billion. However, recent price decline put him in second position with a net worth of $3 billion.